ACU_Auugust Fourth Draft

NEWS FEATURE
Regulators demand more real time
knowledge of the goods that are
being imported and expect airlines to
report accurately using data from
source.
Regulators are holding airlines
responsible to the data that are being
filed. They are also demanding that
airlines use common data sets such as
harmonized codes to report goods
for approval.
Acceptance and delivery of goods
at customers' door are done through
multiple means and without digital
signatures and not knowing the
condition of goods. Claims are raised
and settled with no evidence of the
condition of goods at handover.
Airlines often face bad debts and
write offs due to insufficient credit
control. At the end of the spectrum
operators aren't privy to detailed
analytics and visualizations.
“Being able to capture real-time
data by securely integrating mobility,
IoT and data automation to make
updates on the spot and exchange
information faster will reduce the
time that cargo is left on the ground.
The Cargo and logistics industry is
laden with manual activity and is
paper driven, information sharing is
limited and stakeholders have to
create and process their own data
multiple times often delaying access
to information to process goods
f a s t e r . I o T w i t h d e v i c e s a n d
connectivity will significantly change
the way data and access to real time
data is used to process cargo
shipments. Operators will be using
real time data and customers will have
access to up-to-date knowledge of
their shipment movement. This will
significantly alter the transportation
landscape to process goods faster to
shorten the order fulfillment cycle.”
Unisys has more than 55 years of
experience providing innovative IT
s o l u t i o n s t o t h e t r a v e l a n d
transportation industry. Digistics is a
holistic and integrated modular air
cargo software logistics solution that
allows carriers to streamline freight
management and improve their
operational efficiencies.
“ W e p r o v i d e i n d e p e n d e n t
customer buying and selling portals,
app-based mobility solutions for the
warehouse and door delivery services,
device integration and data sharing,
sensors that record shipment
behavior through the journey
including alerting during distress,
piece level tracking including
pharmaceutical tracking, safe
transport of pets are some of the
solutions Unisys provides to the
industry.
“The Digi-Connect module uses a
common platform to collaborate with
s t a k e h o l d e r s f o r i n f o r m a t i o n
exchange through open APIs.
Underpinning all of these is an
advance analytics and visualization
layers that provides advance views of
t h e t r e n d s , b e h a v i o r s a n d
predictions.”
Are smart warehouses a reality?
According to Navaratnarajah, smart
warehouses indeed are a reality, “In
2017 we predicted that to meet the
growing demand for small parcel
deliveries and e-Commerce boom,
warehouses will transform from a
storage location, to a dynamic facility
using IoT and voice artificial
Intelligence (voice AI) enabling faster
processing of more shipments to
generate a higher return on the realestate
investment.”
Just as connected wearable devices
such as smart watches are becoming
mainstream in the consumer world,
IoT-based technology will create the
'smart warehouse' of the future.
Drones and robots will augment
human activity and perform high
volume tasks that were not done in
the past. Device communication is
central to data sharing and speeding
processing in the warehouse.
Warehouses will no longer be storage
locations but processing centers that
will have high throughput.
“Such efficiency will attract more
cargo from less efficient locations and
develop transshipment hubs. Recent
innovations such as smart glasses
used to display information triggered
by a barcode or QR code on a
container will be taken to a new level
by incorporating scanners to
automatically capture and input
information into the warehouse
system, and integrating voice AI to
initiate actions,” he concludes.
Similar technology is already used
in digital assistants such as Siri,
Cortana or Amazon Echo. Unisys
expects cargo operators to invest in
converting machine commands to
voice within the next three years.
Future global trade will be
significantly powered by online e-
Commerce boom that will demand
more transport by air, warehouses will
be at the epic center of enabling this.
Warehouses will have to deliver the
highest efficiency if this is to be
sustained. Highly automated and
connected smart warehouses will,
thus, be essential to augment this and
help the cargo industry grow.